Do you have to take part in the job center’s application training – or can you avoid the measure? A labor law specialist will clarify.
Anyone who receives benefits from the employment agency may be asked to take part in a professional integration measure – an application training course, for example. But do you have to take part even if you already know your way around applications?
“As a rule, you can’t resist this,” says Johannes Schipp, a specialist lawyer for labor law in Gütersloh.
According to Schipp, such application training takes place via a so-called integration agreement with the employment agency. Job seekers sign that they will take part in the training. Anyone who does not sign can be forced to participate by administrative act.
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Source: t-online
There is a risk of this sanction if you refuse
If job seekers still refuse to take part in the measure, they will face consequences. For those receiving unemployment benefit I, this previously meant a blocking period and for those receiving unemployment benefit II, a reduction in benefits.
However, on January 1, 2023, unemployment benefit was replaced by so-called citizen's benefit. “Sanctions apply here too, which are somewhat milder than those for the old unemployment benefit II,” says Schipp. Job seekers who refuse an integration measure must continue to expect a reduction in performance – by ten percent for the first breach of duty, by 20 percent for the second and by 30 percent for the third.
In the future, however, we will no longer be talking about an integration agreement, but rather a cooperation plan. “This change will only take effect on July 1, 2023,” said Schipp.
